Mosaic Family Voyage

By Rachel Messerschmidt

All photos courtesy of the author.

Farewell for Now

After our first season cruising in Mexico, we’ve been back in the Pacific Northwest since mid-August. We’re visiting family, friends and trying to determine the next steps in our family’s journey.

We’ve managed to pack a lot into our time here: hiking Beacon Rock, visiting Mount St. Helens, sight-seeing in Bend and Astoria, and a trip to Medford which included a drive to Crater Lake. We’ve reconnected with friends and been given opportunities to explore new interests. Our daughter even got the chance to ride a friend’s horse on several occasions.

Being back here has me thinking a lot about what “home” means to me, to us. Should we keep living aboard? We want to buy land for a small homestead at some point. But what about traveling? We’re not really ready to settle down long term just yet. TLC before we can put her back in the water and get back out cruising. We’re not sure exactly how much attention she needs, or how costly the updates and repairs will be. We need to spend some time investigating and poking into things before we’ll know if getting back in the water this year is even feasible.

So, our current plan is to spend the month of December in Puerto Penasco where the boat is being stored. We’ll rent a small apartment and tear into boat projects to determine if we can get it ready to go back into the water. We need to either accomplish that by January or change gears for the time being.

If we can’t get back out cruising for this upcoming season, we’ll likely shift our plans and turn instead to traveling via pet-sitting. We recently purchased a membership with Trusted Housesitters, a service that connects house- and/or pet-owners with families, couples or individuals who are willing to care for a home and pets in exchange for a place to stay while the owners travel. Our sailboat, Mosaic, has been our home for the past six years. She’s part of who we are now, but boats take a lot of effort, time and money to maintain to safety standards. And, after a hard year of cruising in Mexico, Mosaic needs some well-deserved

There are house-sits available around the world and we think it could be a fun and financially feasible way to travel whenever we’re not on the boat. At the time of this writing, we’ve completed five sits from Portland to Seattle and east to Bend. We have sits

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Page 10, top: The author and her mom pose in front of Wizard Island at Crater Lake in southern Oregon during a weekend trip to Medford to visit more extended family.

Bottom: The author's son and her mother-in-law pose atop the Astoria Column during a day-trip to the coast.

Page 11, top: The author's daughter, Kali (8), rides a friend's horse, Clue, at R&R Equestrian Center in Woodland. The stable is owned by a friend and former drillriding team-mate of the author's.

Bottom left: The author's two children enjoy being reacquainted with their cousins while back in Vancouver.

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arranged for Sacramento and Phoenix as we head back south toward Mosaic.

In the future, we’re considering Europe and even Australia, hopefully for several months at a time when traveling further afield. But, just as our first season cruising Mexico has come to an end, so too does this monthly column. We live a life that keeps us on the move and somewhat difficult to pin down, and we like it that way, at least for now. For the future? Only time will tell. Thanks for coming along as I’ve shared our journey for the past two years. I hope you’ve enjoyed the stories.

Rachel Messerschmidt is a Clark County native who shares her family’s adventures on her blog at www.mosaicvoyage.com and on Facebook and Instagram @mosaicvoyage. Read about her family’s adventures in all of Rachel’s past “Mosaic Family Voyage” columns at VancouverFamilyMagazine.com/author/r-messerschmidt.